A Foreigner. An Anglo-German study

Front matter

A FOREIGNEE " Whither thou goest, I will go ; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge : thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. " — Ruth i. 16. A FOEEIGNEE AN ANGLO -GERMAN STUDY BY E. GERARD. — *C (MADAME DE LASZOWSKA) AUTHOR OF 'a secret mission'; joint-author OF 'reata,' etc. WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON MDCCCXCVI All Rights reserved ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN • BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE' IBrlncatelf TO MY DEAREST FRIEND AND COUSIN, ANNE DROUGHT NUGENT, WHOSE REMARKS INDIRECTLY SUGGESTED THIS STUDY OP ANGLO -GERMAN MANNERS AND MORALS. CONTENTS. chap. paoe

Introduction

1 I. LEAVE-TAKINGS 19 II. HORSE-CHESTNUT BLOSSOMS ...... 24 III. TAKING COUNSEL 31 IV. CINDERELLA 41 V. ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS 51 VI. CHANGE OF AIR 59 VII. THE OBERSEE • 65 VIII. A SHOT 71 IX. MOONLIGHT EFFECTS 78 X. THE SALZBURG " FAKTOR " 88 XI. UMBRELLAS 99 XII. PLAYING WITH EDGED TOOLS 106 XIII. THE EDGE OF THE WHIRLPOOL . . . . . 117 XIV. DAMENWAHL 123 XV. GERMAN PRONOUNS 131 XVI. THE WHITE MARBLE CROSS 142 XVII. THE BROKEN GLASS ....... 151 XVIII. CROSSING THE BRIDGE ...... 161 XIX. THE TUNE OF THE " LORELEI " ..... 170 XX. POUR PRENDRE CONGE . . ■ ■ ■ • • 178 XXI. MUSIC AND GERMAN LESSONS . . . . . 186 XXII. MR BLUSHWOOD OF BLUSHWOOD 191 XXIII. THE WRONG MAN 199 XXIV. P.S. AND P.P.S 205 XXV. NOVITIATE • ■ • 210 XXVI. THE RIGHT MAN . . . ... . . 218 XXVII. MUTUAL CONFESSIONS VI CONTENTS.

XXVIII. GOLD RIKl'S PRICE 229 XXIX. WEDDING PREPARATIONS ....•• 236 XXX. A BAD DEBT 243 XXXI. COMING HOME 249 XXXII. MELITTA'S DRAWING-ROOM ..... 258 XXXIII. TAKING ROOT 268 XXXIV. FAMILY EVENTS 275 xxxv. poldi's vows ........ 280 XXXVI. MELITTA NO. 2 . . . . . . . • 288 XXXVII. THE LAND BEYOND THE FOREST .... 294 XXXVIII. THE PRIKOLITSIA ....... 303 XXXIX. A WOLF ? 315 XL. phemie's decision 322 XLI. "this is my own, my native land" . . . 329 XLII. LADY LAURISTON 335 xliii. phemie's welcome ....... 341 XLIV. AN OLD FRIEND ? 350 XLV. CORRESPONDENCE 358 XLVI. COCKLEBURGH 364 XLVII. MRS BLUSHWOOD OF BLUSHWOOD .... 370 XLVIII. MR HAMILTON'S MUSEUM 376 XLIX. A PARCEL 383 L. THE LITTLE FIR-CONE ...... 392 LI. GOING TO THE MEET 398 LII. A GOLDEN PATH 403 LIII. THE EDGE OF THE PRECIPICE 409 LIV. CHANGING HER MIND 416 LV.

MRS GORDON OF GLENROBBIN 423 LVI. THE "QUEEN OF CURDS AND CREAM" . . . 430 LVII. HOME-SICKNESS AND HEIMWEH 438 LVIII. ENTERING THE TRAP 447 LIX. THE 'FREMDENBLATT' 453 LX. A BURST BUBBLE 462 LXI. FROM DOVER TO OSTENDE 471 LXII. FOG-BOUND 478 LXIII. GIPSY MUSIC 487 LXIV. CERTITUDE 494 LXV. HIS GRAVE 501 LXVI. THE CAPTAIN OF THE SQUADRON .... 507 LXVII. POLDI'S STORY 511 CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION.

. PART FIRST. — REHEARSAL. A T the Theatre Royal, Cockleburgh, will be performed, on the 21st inst., the celebrated Drama of "CINDERELLA; OR, THE GLASS SLIPPER," by a Select Company of Distinguished Artists. Characters. The Baroness .... Miss Bella Simpson. Ulrica, \ sMiss Kitty Cockburn. Charlotte,) ' a's ers " (.Miss Agnes Henderson. Cinderella, Stepdaughter to the 1 ,,. __, __ B J-Miss Euphemia Dalrymple. A Fairy, Godmother to Cinderella Miss Jessie Lushington. The Prince. Muley, Lord Chamberlain to the Prince. Court Ladies and Gentlemen, Pages, Servants, &c. Such was the playbill which, transcribed in printed characters on a sheet of foolscap paper, and embellished by sundry ornamental flourishes executed in red ink, was posted up in the receiving parlour of Miss Crossbill's private boarding-school for young ladies at Cockleburgh, near Edinburgh, in order to inform the world at large of the dramatic treat in store for it.

A For wellnigh a month past the girls had talked of nothing else but this play, which was to conclude the annual entertainment following upon the prize-distribution previous to breaking up school for the vacation. Scenery and costumes were all complete, the parts had been conned over and over again with such zeal that each young actress might almost have performed her rdle asleep, yet now at the eleventh hour the performance seemed likely to fall through for lack of two young gentlemen to take the parts of the Prince and Muley, and that was the reason why, on the above playbill, the names of these two important actors were as yet represented by blank spaces. To-day, being Saturday, is a half-holiday at Miss CrossbilFs school ; and as it is a faultless summer day, the girls have been permitted to spend the afternoon on the stretch of beach which lies so conveniently close to the garden of Ehododendron Lodge, that by a high tide and in stormy weather the waves are apt to leap up the steps, and, bursting in between the rusty bars of the iron gate opening out of the garden wall at this end, rudely to dash over the nearest flowers and shrubs, leaving them encrusted with a delicate crystal powder resembling the sparkle of hoar-frost.

Erorn this reiterated action of the breakers, the ancient steps have been honeycombed through and through, producing numberless holes and crevices in which miniature limpets and mussels have lodged themselves, side by side with tufts of many coloured varieties of sea-weed and lichen. The sea-gulls are almost as much at home in the garden as are blackbirds and chaffinches, whose legiti mate nourishment of worms and grubs they come to dispute; and the arrogant toads, which in other more inland gardens are accustomed to reign supreme, are here often superciliously surprised on encountering a bewildered crab, which, landed here by the last sprinotide, has ever since been vainly endeavouring to find an issue from this strange prison -trap into which it has unwittingly fallen. But it is low tide just now, and the sea — that arch

INTRODUCTION.

. 3 deceiver — looks quite far away as seen across the space of sand dividing it from the garden wall : so blue and motionless are the waters to-day, that only by a faint subdued ripple the giant occasionally gives warning that he is asleep, not dead, and will waken up anon to a fresh burst of fury. A belt of tangled brown sea -weed marks the usual boundary of the spring-tides along the beach, while, gently sloping down as it nears the water's edge, the smooth expanse of firm, shining sand is broken here and there by the mysterious imprint of some living marine creature. Here it is the silver sand-eels, which, in bur rowing downwards, have traced their spiral hieroglyphics on the surface ; yonder a razor-shell, eluding the pursuit of man, has discharged a jet of sand and water ere it van ishes from sight ; while the action of myriads of smaller animals has combined to produce a whole further series of cabalistic signs, unintelligible to the vulgar crowd, but easily deciphered by those who have learnt Nature's lessons with thoughtful love.

Snowy white cockles, blue mussels, and pale pink scallop-shells are scattered along the water's edge, like jewels strewn broadcast by a lavish hand ; and here and there the fierce July sun beating down on the sands strikes a flash of coloured fire from off some agate or jasper fragment cast up by the waves. The young ladies of Miss Crossbill's boarding-school, something more than a score in number, are dispersed over the piece of beach which lies directly beyond the garden wall, each one of them intent upon extracting out of her surroundings such diversion as happens best to suit her own individual taste. A number of the younger ones are busily engaged upon the construction of a sand fortress, surrounded by a formidable moat, into which by-and-by the sea-water is to be ingeniously conducted, while others have wandered right and left in quest of shells, crabs, or Scotch pebbles.

Three of the senior pupils, their ages ranging from thirteen to fifteen, have ensconced themselves on camp stools close to the garden entrance, each one with some piece of work in hand which has to be finished before the distribution day, while their busy tongues — never silent for a moment — keep steady pace with the swiftly moving needles ; and as usual, it is the subject of the all-important drama which forms the chief topic of their discourse this afternoon. " There now ! " says Bella Simpson, holding up for the admiration of her comrades a little slipper which she has been neatly covering over with silver ribbon adorned by a border of glittering glass beads — " Cinderella's first slipper is ready, and I hope to finish the second one to day. Does it not look perfectly stunning ? " " What is the good of the slipper so long as we have not got some one to act the parts of Muley and the Prince ?

" says a second voice, discontentedly. " I bet that the play will come to nothing after all, because of that." "We might dispense with Muley at a pinch," remarks Agnes Henderson, reflectively, laying down on her knees the piece of tapestry upon which she has been engaged, and smoothing it out with both hands. " His part might be struck out altogether, or some of his phrases trans ferred to one of the Court ladies ; but the Prince is a difficulty, to be sure, for the play cannot well go on with out him. I suppose there will be nothing for it but for one of us to dress up in boy's clothes and play the Prince. Why, I am quite willing to do so myself rather than let the play fall through on that account," she con cludes, with the magnanimous expression of a martyr who is prepared to sacrifice herself to any extent for the sake of a noble cause, backed up by the comforting con viction that the well-turned foot and ankle, just now rather freely displayed by the outgrown school-frock, would appear to fullest advantage encased in silken hose and velvet tights.

Her companions, however, do not seem disposed to treat the idea with any particular enthusiasm. " In boy's clothes ! " exclaims Bella in horrified accents. " How can you think of such a thing, Agnes ? You know quite well that Miss Crossbill would never, never allow it!"

INTRODUCTION.

. 5 " And it would be so much more amusing to have a real boy," objects Kitty Cockburn. "But if there is no real boy to be had for love or money except old Jacob the gardener," persists Agnes ; — " and he hardly realises one's ideas of a Fairy Prince, you know ? " Several of the younger girls had meanwhile drawn near in order to admire Cinderella's slipper, and at the vision thus evoked of old hunchbacked, bandy-legged, pockpitted Jacob — it had been precisely on account of these physical peculiarities that he had been considered fit for the post of gardener in a young ladies' boarding-school — decked out in regal attire, and spouting enamoured verses to his lady-love, there was a general burst of laughter, in which only one of the pupils failed to join. This was a pale, sallow child, aged about nine, who had sat down silently on the lowest garden-step in order to arrange some lumps of quartz and agate she had col lected in her pinafore, and seemingly so engrossed in their contemplation as to be deaf and blind to what was passing around her.

" What is Cinderella's opinion in the matter ? " now said Bella Simpson, veering round her camp-stool and addressing the silent child. " As she is the principal party interested in the choice of a prince, it is only just that she should give us her views on the subject of fairy princes in general, and draw us the portrait of what her own particular hero is to be like. Say, Phemie, is he to be dark or fair, tall or short, grave or gay 1 " But so absorbed was Phemie Dalrymple in admiration of a pink-veined piece of agate she had found, and which she was holding up against the light to test its trans parency, that the question had to be twice repeated before at last she raised her eyes to her questioner. " The Prince ? " she now said dreamily, leaning back against the steps while her eyes wandered over the expanse of water with a far-off expression, almost as though she could see the figure she was describing approaching in a fairy bark across the blue, dancing waves.

" Of course he must be beautiful. He ought to look like the picture of St George killing the Dragon that hangs in the library at home. He has short thick curls escaping from the helmet he wears ; his eyes are sweet, and fierce all at once ; and when he smiles it is like the sunshine breaking through clouds." " I am afraid old Jacob would never come up to the mark," said Agnes, laughing immoderately at this rather high-flown description. " You will have to be content with me after all, Phemie, for your Fairy Prince ; and if I wear a short tunic, I daresay Miss Crossbill will have no objection to the plan. Luckily, I have learnt the words by heart, and am ready to play the part at a minute's notice ; just see if I am not. Come, girls, let's have a rehearsal now. There will be just time to go through the second act of the play before tea-time, and out here we shall be much less disturbed than indoors."

The other stragglers were soon collected, and the play taken up from the moment when the Prince, standing in the foreground with Muley, his chamberlain, first catches sight of Cinderella behind the scenes. Muley (catching sight of Cinderella behind the scenes, and pointing her out to the Prince). See there, my lord ! who is it doth appear ? That figure ne'er have I encountered here. Some lady she of royal race, I ween, So rich her raiment, and so high her mien ; The gems how lustrous, that her bodice grace. Prince. All nothing to the lustre of her lace. Ne'er have these eyes beheld a form so fair ; Vision of beauty this beyond compare. Nor richest gold may with her tresses vie, Nor sapphires match the azure of her eye ; Less white the lily than her hand of snow, Red as her blush did never roses blow ; Her face shames all that artists' chisels trace, Moulding a Nymph, a Naiad, or a Grace.

Aright her praise to sing, her charms to speak, Too dull my wit, my tongue is all too weak; Alone avails the witness of my heart, That, smitten, glows with Cupid's fiery dart. Her love to win, I dedicate my life : None else but she is destined for my wife.

INTRODUCTION.

. 7 Muley. Softly, my lord ! First be it surely known If she be worthy partner for your throne ; Her name we know not yet, nor her estate. Prince. I know this only, I have found my fate ; On her is centred all my weal or woe, — Nothing I reck of lineage high or low. Fixed is my purpose, steadfast I decide, Her will I make my princess and my bride. Muley (aside). Crazed is my master ; that, alas ! is plain This fair unknown has turned his royal brain. But just at the moment when Muley had expressed these treasonable doubts as to his royal master's sanity, the rehearsal was rudely interrupted by a new arrival on the scene. Jessie Lushington, the only one of the boarders who had been hitherto wanting, now came flying down the centre garden-walk, scaring away a couple of sea-gulls that had been seeking for worms in the cabbage -beds, and, clearing the steps with a bound, scarcely in keeping with her dignity as a fifteen years' old young lady, bounced down into the centre of the group of actors, in her hand an open letter, which she brandished aloft with every appearance of excitement.

" Victory ! " she panted, as soon as she had sufficiently recovered breath to be able to speak. " The Prince is found ! Only think of that." " A real boy ? " inquired two or three voices simul taneously, in tones of as deepest amazement as though a centaur, or at the very least a unicorn, had been here in question. " Two real, live boys, guaranteed perfectly genuine — one for the Prince and one for Muley," chuckled Jessie, triumphantly. " At least one of them — that is my cousin Edward — is a boy. The other one, whom I have never seen, is, I fancy, more inclined to consider himself a grown-up gentleman." " What is his name ? " "Eonald Hamilton, aged sixteen," promptly replied Jessie. " He is at the same school as Edward, only a couple of classes higher, and is coming down to Scotland next week for the midsummer holidays.

Edward has often spoken of him as stunningly clever, and quite an out-and-outer in every way." " And how did you come to secure this paragon all of a sudden, Jessie?" asked Agnes, with an inflection of mingled envy and regret in her tone. " I wrote to Edward some days ago to tell him of our dilemma. He is a very good-natured fellow, and I know that I can count upon him to oblige me when he can ; besides, I have often helped him out with pocket-money, so he owes me a kindness in return, only I thought it better to keep my letter a secret for fear of exciting false hopes. The disappointment would have been too cruel had it all come to nothing, but now we are secured, for Edward never breaks his word. Listen what he writes : — " Dear Coz, — Blood is thicker than water, and it shall not be said that you implored my assistance in vain.

Here I am at your orders, a willing slave, ready to per form the part of Muley or any other wliich my fair cousin Jessie may choose to impose upon me. To find a worthy representative of the Prince would, however, have been no such easy matter, had not a lucky chance befriended me ; for Ronald Hamilton, whom I have often told you about, goes down to Scotland next week on a visit to his a<unt, Lady Lauriston, and by dint of some persuasion I have at last induced him to accompany me down to Cockleburgh on Wednesday week and play the Prince's part. He did not seem to see it at first, for Hamilton is rather a swell, and does not like to make himself too cheap ; but I have drawn him such dazzling pictures of Cinderella's beauty, that I have succeeded in arousing his curiosity as to this paragon of female loveliness, whom I have described in such glowing terms.

Who is she to be, by-the-by ? You did not mention that in your letter. I trust she will do no discredit to my portraiture ? As to Hamilton, he is in every way an out and-outer. He is a great dab at acting, and has quite a remarkable talent for coining impromptu verses, so you may expect the text of your play to be embellished by

INTRODUCTION.

. 9 some flashes of original genius. You may consider your selves uncommonly lucky to have secured the co-operation of such a distinguished actor ; for Hamilton is out and out the cleverest boy in the school, as well as the handsomest : he can be very pleasant when he chooses, only sometimes he is apt to give himself airs. " Send me a copy of the play at once by the next post, that we may learn our parts by heart beforehand, as there will be no time for rehearsal, since all we can manage is to arrive on Wednesday evening just in time for the performance. Of course we shall bring our own costumes and everything we require. — Your affec. cousin, " Edward Lushington. " P.S. — Ronald Hamilton, who has been looking over my shoulder, desires me to send his love to the fair Cinderella." "Delightful!" exclaimed half-a-dozen voices in a chorus.

" Jessie, you really deserve to be decorated in recog nition of the services you have rendered to the drama," added Kitty Cockburn, picking up a large pink scallop shell, and proceeding with mock gravity to fix it by a piece of tapestry wool into her companion's button-hole, whence it dangled as proudly as though it had been the order of the Golden Fleece. But Phemie Dalrymple, who had coloured up painfully while the letter was being read, now interposed. " Oh, how could he, your cousin, tell such fibs about my looks ? " she cried, piteously, while something sus piciously like tears began to cloud her hazel eyes. " You know quite well that I am not at all like the description of Cinderella in the play-book : now, am I ? " "Not a bit of it," said Jessie, candidly, as she ex amined her little companion with impartial scrutiny.

" Your features are not exactly bad in the abstract, for your mouth is small, and your nose has nothing vitally wrong about it, but you are far too yellow and skinny ever to be called pretty, and you haven't an atom of colour in your cheeks; so, strictly speaking, there is nothing good about you but your eyes, which have got a queer, wistful sort of look about them which is rather taking. But if we subtract the eyes, you really have nothing more to fall back upon." " I knew it," said Phemie, clasping her hands together with a tragic gesture ; " so I say to myself often when I look in the glass. I am nothing but an ugly little girl, and not at all like beautiful Cinderella in the play. I am sure I don't know what made Miss Crossbill choose me out for the part." " That is only because Cinderella must be the smallest of the three sisters, and you recite better than any of the other little ones.

That is all that Miss Crossbill thinks of," said Agnes, cruelly. " Your face has nothing at all to do with the part. If she had wanted a really pretty girl, then she would have chosen Minnie Palmer, but only her awful lisp puts her out of the question." " But Phemie also suited because her foot is smaller than any other in the school," said Bella, good-naturedly, as she pointed to the silver slipper with an encouraging gesture. " Cheer up, Phemie, and don't lose heart. We shall turn you out quite a respectable Princess ; just see if we don't. Fine feathers make fine birds, you know ; and with a plentiful layer of rouge on your cheeks, and a flaxen wig on your head, no one will ever be able to recognise you as plain little Phemie Dalrymple." PART SECOND. — PERFORMANCE. Reassured by these persuasive arguments, it was al most with equanimity that Phemie awaited the arrival of the all-important day which was to witness her dibut on the boards.

Certainly her pink silk frock, decorated with glittering tinsel stars, looked very pretty, and the little silver slippers shone as brightly as though in truth they had been made of glass. A judicious coating of rouge on her cheeks had supplied the colour which nig gardly Nature had as yet refused to them ; and with her

INTRODUCTION.

. 11 own smooth brown hair tightly plaited and hidden away beneath a gorgeous flaxen wig, which fell in long cork screw ringlets to far below her slender waist, even her companions had difficulty in recognising her thus trans figured by a borrowed glory. " I really do not look so very much amiss," she said complacently, as she surveyed herself in the large pier glass which stood in one corner of the green-room on the momentous evening. " If only he arrives in time ! Whatever shall we do if the Prince does not come ? " For although it was almost half-past seven o'clock, and the performance had been announced for sharp eight, the two young gentlemen on whom so much depended had not yet made their appearance, despite the telegram which had come earlier in the day to announce their arrival in Edinburgh.

" I shall be obliged to take the part myself, after all," Agnes Henderson was just beginning to say for the tenth time at least that evening, when the words were checked on her lips by the sound of carriage-wheels grating on the gravel outside. " They have come ! " exclaimed Jessie Lushington, dashing from the room in order to welcome her cousin and his companion. Some of the other girls looked as if they would fain have followed her example, had they not been restrained by a reproving glance from the cold grey eyes of Miss Allan, the under-teacher, who, a great stickler for the proprieties, had from the outset rather set her face against the theatrical scheme, considering it culpable weakness on old Miss Crossbill's part to have ever countenanced the admission of boys into the hallowed sanctuary of a young ladies' boarding-school, even for one single evening.

Not being, therefore, fortunate enough to claim kinship with either of the new arrivals, the other pupils had to content themselves by thronging to the window, where, craning over each other's necks, they contrived to catch glimpses of the two youths just alighting from the car riage that had brought them out here from town. " Which is Ronald Hamilton ? " asked Kitty Cockburn. " Is it the short fair one in the Glengarry cap ? " " No, I think not ; that must be Edward Lushington, Jessie's cousin, for see he is kissing her. The taller one in the homespun suit is Mr Hamilton. Now he is turning this way. Oh my ! How handsome he is ! and what a regular full-fledged swell he looks ! " " Let me see ! let me see ! " pleaded Phemie Dalrymple, in an agony of tantalised curiosity, as she vainly endeav oured, by standing on tiptoe, to catch a glimpse over the shoulders of her taller companions.

" I want to see what my Fairy Prince is like." " Get up beside me on the dressing-table, Phemie, and you will see quite well," said her younger sister, Chrissy, — a smaller, scraggier, and yet more insignificant edition of Phemie's own self, and who from this enviable posi tion had been enjoying the sight in a comfortable and leisurely fashion. Thus encouraged, Phemie followed her sister's ex ample, and ascended the table, where powder and poma tum pots, ends of burnt cork and sticking-plaster, and other such indispensable articles of a theatrical green room, were huddled together in motley confusion. The other girls, still engrossed in contemplation of the scene outside, had meanwhile paid no attention to what was passing behind their backs till suddenly startled by Chrissy Dalrymple's piercing shrieks — "Fire! fire!

Phemie is burning!" they all turned round in alarm to see Phemie's head and shoulders in a blaze. In her anxiety to catch sight of Ronald Hamilton, she had taken no heed of the tapers burning on each side of the looking-glass, and it had required but a touch of one of the combustible flaxen curls to set the whole wig on Are. In the general panic which ensued most of the girls confined themselves to helpless shrieks, utterly incapable of rendering assistance to their companion. " Water ! " cried Miss Allan, hurrying to the wash stand and catching hold of a well-filled ewer, which she proceeded to empty over the burning Cinderella. But almost simultaneously Bella Simpson, quicker of thought,

INTRODUCTION.

. 13 had seized hold of the blazing wig, and plucked it bodily off. This all happened so rapidly that luckily no portion of the dress had as yet caught fire, and, barring the fright she had received, Phemie was none the worse of the little mishap ; while Bella, whose energetic action had averted the danger, was quit for a slight burn on the wrist of her right hand. The flaxen wig was, however, irremediably destroyed ; and as its charred and blackened remains now floated limply in the foot-pail, where it had been thrown, no one would have recognised the luxuriant golden chevelure of but a few minutes since. " My beautiful, beautiful curls are destroyed ! " ex claimed Phemie, beginning to cry as she realised the state of things. " Whatever shall I do ? I cannot act Cinderella without my curls !

" " You must just go on in your own hair," said Miss Allan, severely. " It serves you right for playing such foolish pranks ; and you may thank your stars that it was only the wig that was burned, and not yourself as well." Phemie thought to herself that she would gladly have purchased back her vanished flaxen glory even at the expense of a little pain. There was nothing for it now, however, but to make the best of the situation, and try to conceal the accident from the general public, which already was beginning to show signs of impatience at this delay in the rising of the curtain. Phemie's own brown hair, all dripping and draggled from its recent immersion in water, was forth with—;saute de mieux — combed out about her shoulders, where it hung in long, limp, expressionless wisps ; and, hastily clothed in the dingy brown wrapper which during the earlier part of the play was to conceal the glittering ball-dress from the world's gaze, Phemie was hurried on to the scene, still wholly bewildered by the fright and agitation of the recent episode.